Strong Baku Open is won by Inarkiev

10/3/2014 – With the FIDE Grand Prix currently underway in Baku, you would be forgiven for thinking the Baku Open was somehow related to it, but in fact it did not. The Baku Open was held just before, and brought a powerful contingent of grandmasters and masters as is typical of the region. Despite many known names, what stood out was the number of significant results by teenagers.

Everyone uses ChessBase, from the World Champion to the amateur next door. Start your personal success story with ChessBase 14 and enjoy your chess even more!

Along with the ChessBase 14 program you can access the Live Database of 8 million games, and receive three months of free ChesssBase Account Premium membership and all of our online apps! Have a look today!

In spite of the presence of the top seeds Sergei Zhigalko (2677), Ernesto Inarkiev (2672) and more, one name that stood out was 16-year-old Vladislav Artemiev (2650) who qualified for the World Cup in the European Championship earlier this year. Still, with 28 grandmasters out of 58 titled players, of whom fifteen were rated 2600 or more, it was clear there would be no cruise control here.

16-year-old Vladislav Artemiev was going strong until two losses in
rounds seven and eight derailed his tournament. A last round win
showed his resilkience, but the damage was done and he ended 14th.

At the midway point, the leader was actually Andrey Baryshpolets (2540) with 4.5/5, while the biggest surprise was sixteen year-old German IM Alexander Donchenko (2501) who led the pack with 4.0/5 with the best tiebreak. He was followed by Ukrainian GM Alexander Areshchenko, Vladislav Artemiev, Ernesto Inarkiev, and Romanian Constantin Lupulescu.

This balance changed the very next round as Inarkiev beat Baryshpolets, but the former leader was unfazed and won the very next round to rejoin the leaders. Young Donchenko himself then faced four players rated 2650 or better and was unable to maintain his heavy scoring, however he still finished with 5.5/9 and a lofty 2677 performance.

The cordoned area

In the last round, four players shared first with 6.0/8, and they were all paired against one another. It was a classic case of do-or-die, and Inarkiev beat Areshchenko with black, while Lupulescu beat Baryshpolets with white. Haviong the superior tiebreak, Ernesto Inarkiev took first over Constantin Lupulescu, while Hungarian GM Ferenc Berkes snuck in and took third.

Ernesto Inarkiev took first with 7.0/9 and a 2748 performance

Still, this was not the end of it, since a number of young players who remained out of view from the top tables all managed to pull off important results. One of the most surprising was from the untitled Iranian, Parham Maghsoodloo, aged thirteen and rated 2321, who despite failing to appear for his first round, finished with 5.5/9 and a 2560 performance.

Albert SilverBorn in the US, he grew up in Paris, France, where he completed his Baccalaureat, and after college moved to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He had a peak rating of 2240 FIDE, and was a key designer of Chess Assistant 6. In 2010 he joined the ChessBase family as an editor and writer at ChessBase News. He is also a passionate photographer with work appearing in numerous publications.

See also

12/30/2017 – The "King Salman World Blitz & Rapid Championships 2017" in Riyadh from Decemer 26th to 30th. At the half way point of the Blitz Championship, the defending champ Sergey Karjakin leads with 9 / 11. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave is a half point back followed by Peter Svidler and a trio of Chinese: Wang, Ding and Yu on 8 / 11. In the Women's Pia Cramling has a full point lead with 9½ / 11. Watch live with Rounds 11 to 22 from 12:00 Noon CET (6:00 AM EST) on Saturday with commentary by E. Miroshnichenko & WGM K. Tsatsalashvili.

See also

12/6/2017 – Imagine this: you tell a computer system how the pieces move — nothing more. Then you tell it to learn to play the game. And a day later — yes, just 24 hours — it has figured it out to the level that beats the strongest programs in the world convincingly! DeepMind, the company that recently created the strongest Go program in the world, turned its attention to chess, and came up with this spectacular result.

Video

The introductory position of the Kasparov Gambit can occur after 1 d4,1 Nf3 and 1 c4, which can appeal to a wide range of players. The usual move order is 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 c5 3 Nf3 cxd4 4 Nxd4 e5!? 5 Nb5 d5 6 cxd5 Bc5 bringing us to a very sharp position. On this 60 mins, FIDE Senior Trainer Andrew Martin argues the case from the Black side, showing both classic Kasparov masterpieces and games from the present day and suggests that White's defensive task is not easy. This is a practical gambit which will help players at all levels to win more games. It is ideal for must-win situations with Black. It is a gambit that White cannot decline,as if he does, Black gets a good position instantly. White must take up the cudgels and fight!